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Fallout monitoring. Technician taking readings of radioactive contamination of a helicopter used during the Chernobyl disaster. The radiation detector is located on the end of the rod in the technician's right hand; this passes signals to the reader in the technician's left hand. All helicopters used in the Chernobyl area were routinely tested for radioactive contamination. The accident at Chernobyl occurred on 25th April 1986 during a low-power experiment on Reactor 4, an RBMK design. The resulting steam explosion exposed the core and led to the release of over a billion billion becquerels of radioactive nuclides. Much of Europe was contaminated.